Every day it seems that the writers for the Yahoo! front page display their woeful ignorance of common idioms. Whether they’re telling us “third time’s charming,” or someone is “poking fun of” someone else or an unfamiliar picture doesn’t “strike a bell,” they have new and creative ways of expressing themselves. So, it should come as no surprise that they think Nicole Richie is the splitting image of her daughter:
The expression is “spitting image.” There are many theories about the origin of the expression, but Laurence Horn, professor of linguistics at Yale University, says it is derived from the word spitten. “Spitten image,” according to Horn, refers to “a likeness that was literally spit out, but where figuratively the ‘spit’ in question involved a rather different bodily fluid … inherently more relevant to the transmission of genetic material.”
August 22, 2012 at 2:07 am
The most meticulous writers and speakers might go back a few more generations in pursuit of the venerable phrase spit and image. The following is from http://tinyurl.com/maabna….
If you think you’re the spitting image of your parents, you’re forgiven. People have been messing this one up for decades. “Spit and image” was the original term, used from about 1825 on. The Oxford English Dictionary defined it as “the very spit of, the exact image, likeness, or counterpart of.” “Spitting image” came about some 80 years later and was followed by a few other variations, including “spitten image” and “splitting image” (neither of which really caught on)….
August 22, 2012 at 6:17 am
That’s certainly one theory, but there are others, too. I picked Horn’s theory to use because I loved his quote.
August 22, 2012 at 7:19 am
Waaaaaaaait a minute!! Are you saying the third time’s not charming?
August 22, 2012 at 8:06 am
Only when you write it, Wyrd Smythe.
August 22, 2012 at 8:46 am
I’ve never heard of “splitting image.” I thought this was very funny and very typical of yahoo.
August 22, 2012 at 9:58 am
Looks like they finally changed it to “spitting image.”
August 22, 2012 at 8:21 pm
It seems that some of the writers/editors do check Terribly Write (or subscribe to the feed) and make changes. At least that seems to be true during the week; on weekends, I don’t think the writers/editors pay attention to what’s here.